Fortress' impressive three world record performance over the weekend made me think of this topic. Obviously the things she's doing are working well for the events she likes to swim. She concentrates on SDKs, fast swimming with lots of rest and drylands to aid in explosiveness. Long aerobic sets just aren't a part of her training regime, from what I've seen.
Almost every organized training group I've swum with, on the other hand, focuses on long aerobic sets, short rest, not a whole lot of fast stuff, etc. Basically the polar opposite of how Fortress trains. In my opinion this probably works pretty well for those who swim longer events, but really does very little for sprinters. The sprint events are almost always the most popular events at meets, so why do people choose to train aerobically? I think there are a number of factors at play. There's the much maligned triathletes. There's those who don't compete and "just want to get their yardage in." There's a historical precedent of lots of yardage being the way to go.
So what do you all think? How does you or your team train? I know lots of regular bloggers here DO train differently than my perception of the norm. Examples include Ande, Chris S. and Speedo. Are too many masters teams stuck in a training regime that is not at all what many of their swimmers need to get faster?
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And, again, race pace work is NOT just for sprinters. For example, while I understand Salo's sprinters do zero distance work and long aerobic sets, his D swimmers don't do that much short rest stuff either.
Paul's program sounds great to me. I wish my team trained that way.
Yesterday I missed the morning workout so I had to come in later and train alone. I chose to ignore what was on the board, which was a bunch of typical zero rest "garbage" stuff like 50s on :45, 100s on 1:30, etc. I'm training for the 500 free, 50 fly, and 100 free, so I did the following:
Warm up: 400S, 300P, 200K, 100IM
Set 1:
3 x 500 free, broken at the 100 with 10s rest
#1 swim with paddles, #2 swim with fins, #3 swim naked medium hard, try to pace consistently. I took as much rest as I wanted between 500s. It was probably about a minute and a half to two minutes, and it felt like a guilty pleasure. When our coach gives us 500s they're usually on an interval that allows 10 to 20 seconds of rest, if that.
Set 2:
2 X 25 back flutter kick, 2 x 25 backstroke swim.
2 X 25 fly kick, 2 X 25 fly
2 x 50 back kick, 2 X 50 back swim (fins)
2 x 50 fly kick, 2 X 50 fly (fins)
25s were on 1:00, 50s on 1:30. Then I did 2 more 50s fly, finless, to work on technique. No interval on those, just focused on getting my head down early, shoulder shrug, and undulation.
Cooldown was an easy 400 pull with paddles. Focus on body roll, hip snap, and symmetry.
This ended up being a pretty long workout but I felt much better at the end than I do during the typical no-rest stuff. My technique felt consistent throughout, even though I was tired. I guess I am a lazy sprinter at heart.
And, again, race pace work is NOT just for sprinters. For example, while I understand Salo's sprinters do zero distance work and long aerobic sets, his D swimmers don't do that much short rest stuff either.
Paul's program sounds great to me. I wish my team trained that way.
Yesterday I missed the morning workout so I had to come in later and train alone. I chose to ignore what was on the board, which was a bunch of typical zero rest "garbage" stuff like 50s on :45, 100s on 1:30, etc. I'm training for the 500 free, 50 fly, and 100 free, so I did the following:
Warm up: 400S, 300P, 200K, 100IM
Set 1:
3 x 500 free, broken at the 100 with 10s rest
#1 swim with paddles, #2 swim with fins, #3 swim naked medium hard, try to pace consistently. I took as much rest as I wanted between 500s. It was probably about a minute and a half to two minutes, and it felt like a guilty pleasure. When our coach gives us 500s they're usually on an interval that allows 10 to 20 seconds of rest, if that.
Set 2:
2 X 25 back flutter kick, 2 x 25 backstroke swim.
2 X 25 fly kick, 2 X 25 fly
2 x 50 back kick, 2 X 50 back swim (fins)
2 x 50 fly kick, 2 X 50 fly (fins)
25s were on 1:00, 50s on 1:30. Then I did 2 more 50s fly, finless, to work on technique. No interval on those, just focused on getting my head down early, shoulder shrug, and undulation.
Cooldown was an easy 400 pull with paddles. Focus on body roll, hip snap, and symmetry.
This ended up being a pretty long workout but I felt much better at the end than I do during the typical no-rest stuff. My technique felt consistent throughout, even though I was tired. I guess I am a lazy sprinter at heart.
